According to city records,
464 Linwood was built in 1919 by Sara E. Fish, one of three single-family
homes that she and Frank Fish built on a narrow, double lot, the last undeveloped
section of what was then the northern edge of town. Inside all were given the
same layout, but only our house was treated to an enormous gambrel
roof in the "Dutch"
Colonial style. We do not know who designed the structure, since the original
plans have been lost, and but the floor plan and style do not match any of the traditional
Colonial Revival designs in plan books available from that period. Frank Fish appears
to have just been the builder -- the city directory of that year lists a carpenter
by that name living in the Broadway-Filmore district.

The property was first sold to its first owner in the fall of 1919 by a Lucia
S. Casa Equia. Hazel Surdam and her husband Lewis lived here from
1920 to 1927. Hazel was from Brookline, Massachusetts where she had played
violin in the Boston Symphony. Once in Buffalo she helped to start the Buffalo Symphony
Orchestra, and was a member of the Garrett Club and Westminster
Church. Lewis was similarly notable. In his 20's, he is credited with helping
Naismith to develop the game of basketball and coached one of its first teams.
He then joined F.W. Woolworth‚s in 1905 as a stockboy (age 32), worked his way rapidly
up to assistant manager and then head-buyer for Europe. He so impressed the owner
that he was promoted to vice president. He established the first five & dime
department store on Fifth Ave in NYC, before coming to Buffalo in 1920 to run the
local store. He was a member of the Saturn
and Buffalo Country Clubs.

The house changed hands again in 1927. Richard Ullman ran a contracting firm headquartered
in the Liberty Bank Building,
then moved into real estate, before joining the Buffalo Broadcasting Corp., where
he working his way up from sales to an executive position. His wife Ruth owned the
Savoy Shop on Delaware Ave. The Ullman‚s occupied our house from 1928 to 1945, and
during the 1930‚s they employed a Polish maid, Mary Sikore, who lived on the 3rd
floor.

Elbridge Jr. was descended from a former Buffalo mayor and the "father of
the greenback." Co-owner of Spaulding & Yates, the main colliery in Buffalo,
he lived in the large apartment complex at 800
West Ferry. His son, E.G. Spaulding, Jr., attended Nichols School and then
Williams College. After serving in WWII, he worked for his father as a salesman.
He and Helen had two children, Varney and Elbridge Gerry III ("Mike").

When the couple's marriage failed, Spaulding Sr. settled Helen on Linwood, where
she lived until she died. Helen was very active in the community, president
of the Frontier Club of Republican Women, but also a member of Planned Parenthood,
as well as the Junior Board of the Buffalo General Hospital and the Junior League
of Buffalo. She was also on the Women's Committee of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
and a member of the Garrett Club for 67 years. Her daughter Varney (Greene) ran the
local history room at the Buffalo Public Library for many years.

We bought our home from Helen‚s estate in 2003, naming it the "Dragonfly"
for its green colors and "scale" roof.